I ran into an issue today trying to get the Quick Launch in WSS 3.0 to sort the document libraries I had in there alphabetically.  This site is a sub site of the main SharePoint site.  I thought I looked at all of the settings but nothing stood out to me.

I then turned to searching the Internet.  I spent more time looking for a solution to this than I care to admit.  I found quite a few posts about others having the same issue.  I also found numerous solutions where I could add custom code, custom web parts, and so forth.  I finally came across a post that had enough clues in it that I was able to find an easy solution.

First, go to the main page of the site that you want to set the sorting of the Quick Launch on.  Next go to 'Site Actions' in the upper left corner, and select 'Site Settings.'  Under 'Look and Feel' select 'Navigation'

You will note that under 'Sorting' the option is defaulted to 'Sort manually.'  Even if the main site is set to sort automatically, this does not inherit by default to any new site created under it.  This is the setting that you want to change, though, and it will affect everything in the Quick Launch.  Other lists are set by the views by the list and not this setting.

Once you change that to automatic, you can then change a few Automatic Sorting options.

I hope this saves you some time and frustration when you are trying to change the sorting on WSS 3.0 Quick Launch items.